Some neurologists swear by “mirror neurons,” a subset of neurons that fire when we observe someone else doing or feeling something as if it was us — they believe that the neurons provide an evolutionary benefit by endowing us with the empathy required to function in a group. Not everyone agrees.

There are psychologists who suggest that if we see a characters as having human motivations, we’re programmed to decide if we like and care about them or not, or if they make us furious or scare us.

And, of course, we can’t discount the purely manipulative power of a movie soundtrack. Artful soundtrack composers know how to work our feelings with music, even if no one really understands the mechanism that makes music so unbelievably effective at doing so — it’s another topic for another day.

A glass of juice has as much sugar, ounce for ounce, as a full-calorie soda. And those vitamins do almost nothing.

Quick: think back to childhood (if you've reached the scary clown you've gone too far). What did your parents or guardians give you to keep you quiet? If you're anything like most parents, it was juice. But here's the thing: juice is bad for you.